Shaved ice summer

November 24 - December 8, 2025

   

So my little errand was to pick up a $10 ice shaver that was advertised on facebook marketplace. This idea had been churning in the back of my mind since before I encountered several excellent specimens in Taipei. You see, we'd arranged for a noodle-themed potluck with our vegan pals, and I was plotting cendol for dessert. I had the non-perishable ingredients purchased from KFL and stocked in our pantry at least a month in advance: the box of cendol, some sweet canned jackfruit, sweet red beans, toddy palm seeds, grass jelly, coconut milk, and palm sugar.

   

The ice shaver took a couple of goes to get the hang of, was particular about the ice shapes I put in, and was loud. But it worked! I layered up my cendol ingredients and crowned them with feather-light ice shards shot through with palm sugar syrup. I had enough ingredients to last several weeks, and I experimented with different serving vessels - the plastic bowl in the second photo became a favourite. This was quick enough to arrange that I could whip one up for afternoon tea on a work-from-home day.

   

Once I'd exhausted my cendol supplies, I experimented with other fruits (while continuing to make palm sugar syrup - it's really good!). I made pandan-infused coconut jelly set with agar in my silicon cupcake trays, and teamed it with watermelon or mango. I've experimented a little with flavoured cordials, and have a can of lychees in the cupboard waiting for their moment - I just think they'd be great with lemon, lime and bitters! It's shaped up to be my shaved ice summer.

Chickpea & artichoke salad

October 6, 2025

   

Michael was away for work, and I wanted to stock the fridge with a couple of durable salads to rely on across the week. This one was so deep in my bookmarks that I needed the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to retrieve it! It's a natural and appealing mix of artichoke hearts and chickpeas, both browned in a pan, then dressed with lemon juice, olive oil and some green herbs, finished with almonds.

This fit the brief perfectly. I first ate it alongside beetroot and rhubarb salad and vegetarian sausage rolls, and in a few other configurations as the week went on.

Chickpea & artichoke salad

(slightly adapted from a recipe by Ricki Heller)

5 tablespoons olive oil, and/or oil from the jar of artichoke hearts

juice of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons dried or 2 tablespoons fresh basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup flaked almonds

1 x 400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 x 280g jar artichoke hearts, drained and quartered (reserve oil, if included)

2 cloves garlic, minced

In a medium-large bowl, whisk together 3 tablespoons of oil, lemon juice, basil, oregano, parsley and salt. Set aside.

Set a frypan over medium heat and gently toast the flaked almonds until they're starting to brown and they smell great. Remove them from the pan.

Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the frypan. Add the chickpeas to the oil and cook them for about 10 minutes, until they start to brown. Transfer the chickpeas from the pan to the bowl.

Add 1 more tablespoon of olive oil to the frypan. Place the artichoke hearts in the pan and cook until they're well browned on that side, then turn them to brown them on another side. Add the garlic and stir it all together for a minute, then transfer the artichoke hearts and garlic to the bowl. Stir everything together well, then sprinkle over the flaked almonds.

Torn lasagne with kale & kimchi, plus pickled fennel

September 7, 2025

   

Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart has been one of our favourite recent additions to the cookbook pile, but we've got to keep reminding ourselves to keep digging through it for more gems (instead of just falling back on the classic gems). This torn lasagne has been on my list for ages, and we had a quiet Sunday night to give it a go. 

The idea of a low fuss lasagne is obviously hugely appealing - no meticulous layering, just a delicious baked melange! There's still a bit of work to prep-wise, but it's definitely easier than some our other baked pasta attempts. There are two pre-baking steps: fry up your kale a bit and then make your smokey tomato sauce and then pile everything up in a baking tray and wait. It was so perfect for my tastes, smokey and spicy and hugely cheesy - the torn lasagne sheets give just enough texture to the whole thing. I would eat it every week if possible. 

We decided it needed some sort of vegetable accompaniment and after a quick flick of Tenderheart I settled on this very basic pickled fennel. It was basically the perfect accompaniment, tangy and crunchy and just the right thing to cut through the rich lasagne. What a meal.

 

   

Torn lasagne with kale & kimchi

(from Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart)

1 bunch of kale

1 garlic clove, crushed

450g fresh lasagne sheets

500g ricotta

1 cup grated cheddar

1 cup kimchi

olive oil

salt and pepper

tomato sauce

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons gochugaru

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon white sugar

800g can crushed tomatoes

sea salt

olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Trim the leaves off the kale stems and roughly chop them, then finely slice the stems.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan on high heat and saute the kale stems and garlic for a minute. Add in the leaves, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and stir-fry for another 4-5 minutes, until the leaves have wilted. Kill the heat and put the kale aside.

Get cracking on the sauce, by heating a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and the garlic in a large saucepan. Cook for 30 seconds and then throw in the gochugaru, paprika, oregano, sugar and a couple of generous pinches of salt. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and about 2 cups of water. Stir everything together and let it simmer for 20 minutes or so. 

Tear the lasagne sheets into rough strips, fairly large ones but really whatever suits your vibe. 

In a large bowl combine the ricotta with a couple of tablespoons of water and whisk until it's smooth. Add half the cheddar, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and some salt and pepper and stir together. Fold in the kale and the kimchi and then finally gently stir through the torn lasagne sheets.

Pour the sauce into a large baking dish and then gently stir in the cheese/kale/lasagne mix. Top with the rest of the cheddar and carefully pop the whole thing into the oven. Bake for 40 minutes until the cheese has gone nice and golden. Let it all sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Pickled fennel

(from Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart)

1 bulb fennel, finely shaved and chopped

125ml rice vinegar

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

Place the fennel in a bowl.

Put 125ml of water into a saucepan and add in the rest of the ingredients. Heat over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Take off the heat and immediately pour it over the fennel. Leave to pickle for 15 minutes and serve!

Golden syrup potato dumplings

June 21, 2025

   

While the potato chip Florentines were fast and fun, this idea rattled around in my head for a while before I was ready to get a saucepan out. I don't have a history with golden syrup dumplings though I feel as if I should. They're surely a cousin to the self-saucing puddings I know, with the golden syrup hinting at a British-Aussie lineage, easy to imagine either of my grandmothers making even though I don't think they did! (There's a little more about golden syrup dumplings on Green Gourmet Giraffe.)

I was thinking about how gnocchi are dumplings, and initially imagined that I might simply cook gnocchi in a golden syrup sauce as a potato-themed tribute to golden syrup dumplings. Then I thought about the savoury potato dumplings we love atop this mushroom casserole and figured I could go a step further, making my own potato scone dough instead of buying vegan gnocchi. This called for a couple of test batches. The first round was pretty good, but a bit rubbery due to my use of gluten-free flour. The second wheat-flour batch was noticeably better, and I went ahead and doubled it on potluck day, preparing them at home, then microwaving them at our host's house after dinner.

As a golden syrup dumpling novice, I struggled to judge when they were ready. I was very worried that the ones I took to the potluck had completely disintegrated into the sauce and I'd just be ladling out lumpy caramel soup for dessert. Thankfully I was mistaken, there were spoonable dumplings still to be found, and everyone (non-coeliac) took them on with enthusiasm and a scoop of vanilla icecream. The mashed potato renders their texture a little less cakey and more fudgy than a traditional dumpling but it's a standard texture scale for brownies that I'm happy to transfer to another dessert.

Golden syrup potato dumplings

(a meld of this savoury potato dumpling recipe and this golden syrup dumpling recipe)

dumpling dough

1 medium potato, to make 1/2 cup mashed potato

1 1/2 tablespoons margarine

3/4 cup plain flour (can use gluten-free but the texture is more rubbery)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon brown sugar 

1/4 cup water or milk

caramel sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup golden syrup

2 tablespoons margarine

1 1/2 cups water

Fill a saucepan with water and set it over medium-high heat. Peel and roughly chop the potato, and gently drop the pieces into the saucepan. Bring it all to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the potatoes until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes but keep them in the saucepan. Mash the potatoes until there are no lumps, and stir in the margarine. Stir in the flour, baking powder and sugar, then the water/milk to make a dough.

Fill a larger saucepan with all of the sauce ingredients, stirring them together. Set the mixture over medium-high heat and bring it to the boil. Drop generous spoonfuls of the dough into the sauce. Reduce the heat to low and place a lid on the saucepan, cooking the dumplings until they pass the skewer test, about 15-20 minutes. Serve two dumplings each to four people, accompanied by a scoop of icecream.

Salt 'n' pepper gems

June 21, 2025

   

We've been getting the old potluck crew together again a bit this year and it's been so great. After the success of the tomato-themed evening earlier in the year, we regathered in June for a potato-focussed event. Potatoes offer up so many possibilities, but I've been eyeing off this very simple but very exciting-looking recipe in Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart since we first flicked through it. Potato gems are spectacular on their own, but this recipe really takes them to new heights. It's so, so easy and the return on investment is incredible - it was one of the hits of a very high quality potluck. Stop reading this, go and buy some gems and then come back and cook this up, trust me.

Salt and pepper potato gems

(from Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart)

800g frozen potato gems (one bag)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 red chilli, finely sliced

3 green onions, finely chopped

seasoning

2 teaspoons of salt

1/2 teaspoon white sugar

1 teaspoon white pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice

Preheat an oven to 220°C and then bake the gems for half an hour, until they're golden and crispy - don't be afraid to give them more if they're not golden. 

Combine all the seasoning ingredients in a bowl and mix well. 

Heat a large frying pan or wok over medium heat and add the oil. Once it's nice and hot throw in the chilli and green onions and stir-fry for a minute. Throw in the gems and stir-fry for another couple of minutes until everything is nicely combined. 

Kill the heat and stir through the seasoning. Serve immediately. 

Cauliflower & eggplant, both with hoisin

June 7, 2025

   

While Michael was away on a work trip, I set about making myself a large, vege-full set of dishes that I could spin out over many meals. These two recipes from Tenderheart had a complementary way about them - the eggplant's marinade includes hoisin sauce and it's served over rice, while the cauliflower recipe involves making one's own hoisin and includes jointly cooking white rice, brown rice and quinoa.

Since I'm not fond of McKinnon's recommended green onion and coriander garnishes for these dishes, my rendition ended up looking very beige and brown. I went a little light on the hoisin for the cauliflower and had plenty leftover to lend to the eggplant marinade. I really enjoyed the mixed grains and would repeat that process to serve alongside any number of recipes.

Meanwhile, the eggplant didn't quite live up to the glossy image in the book. It was pleasantly salty and savoury, very tender; neither flawed nor quite what I was hoping for in a 'char siu' dish. Once I'd managed my expectations this was a very good meal that packed nicely for work lunches. Little garnishes like peanuts and sesame seeds make all the difference to me!

Hoisin-glazed cauliflower with mixed grains & peanuts

(slightly adapted from Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart)

1 head cauliflower

olive oil

salt and pepper

1/3 cup roasted peanuts

hoisin sauce

3 tablespoons tamari

2 tablespoons tahini

1 teaspoon garlic powder

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

pepper

2 teaspoons miso

mixed grains

1 cup brown rice

1/2 cup white rice

1/4 cup quinoa

salt

Preheat an oven to 200°C.

Place the rices and the quinoa in a sieve and rinse them. Transfer them to a medium-large saucepan with 2 1/2 cups of water and a generous pinch of salt. Set the saucepan over high heat, bring it all to the boil and then turn the heat down to low. Cook the grains for 30-35 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the grains are tender. Turn off the heat but leave the lid on the saucepan.

While the grains are cooking, make the hoisin sauce by whisking all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Chop the cauliflower into big, chunky florets. Place them in a baking tray and stir through olive oil, salt and pepper, and several tablespoons of the hoisin sauce. Roast for 20-30 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender.

To serve, load plates up with grains, then cauliflower, spoon over extra hoisin and then sprinkle over the peanuts.

Eggplant, 'char siu' style

(slightly adapted from Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart)

2 large eggplants, sliced into 1cm thick rounds

white sesame seeds, to garnish

marinade

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon tamari

1 tablespoon golden syrup

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon five-spice powder

Whisk together all of the marinade ingredients. Arrange the eggplant slices in a shallow dish and pour the marinade over them. Allow the eggplants to soak up the marinade for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours. Turn them over and/or relayer them in the dish along the way, for more even flavouring, if you're marinating them for a longer period.

Preheat an oven to 200°C. Line 1-2 baking trays with paper.

Arrange the eggplant slices in one layer across the baking trays and bake them for 15 minutes. Retrieve the trays, flip the eggplant slices, and spoon some of the remaining marinade over them. Return to the oven for a further 15 minutes of baking. 

Serve the eggplant slices with more marinade spooned over the top, and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

Cherry tomato & berry crumble

May 3, 2025

   

When making these two tomato desserts, it was important to me that the tomato wouldn't be hidden away - I wanted it to be a prominent, complementary flavour. I recalled having two inspiring back-to-back meals in New Zealand in 2013 that combined tomatoes with red berries - so bright and juicy, sweet and sour! It had me thinking that I could try bringing tomatoes and berries together in a warm fruit crumble for autumn.

My formula was pretty simple: equal weights of cherry tomatoes and frozen mixed berries, giving the tomatoes extra baking time to ensure they were properly soft. Then a crumble based on the proportions I relied on as far back as 2007 (apologies for the diet talk in that post - yeesh). I used gluten-free flour and wheat-free rolled oats to accommodate our favourite coeliac.

Those test proportions were just what I was after! The fruit layer was lush with a clear tomato flavour, subtly savoury amongst the berries, and an even texture across all the fruit pieces. The crumble was nutty and biscuity, not quite as golden as I reckon a wheat-flour version would be. I scooped Billy Van Creamy vegan peach and coconut icecream on the side, and everyone dug in with curiosity and compliments.

Cherry tomato & berry crumble

(based on this general crumble formula)

 

fruit layer

560g cherry tomatoes

560g frozen mixed berries

1/3 cup caster sugar

crumble

100g gluten-free flour

100g wheat-free rolled oats

100g caster sugar

100g margarine

50g flaked almonds

Preheat an oven to 160°C.

Halve the cherry tomatoes, place them in a casserole dish, and bake for 30 minutes, until they're soft and concentrated. 

While the tomatoes are baking, prepare the crumble. Place the flour, oats and sugar in a food processor and pulse briefly. Add the margarine and pulse further. Add the almonds and pulse a final time.

When the tomatoes are ready, retrieve them from the oven and raise the oven temperature to 190°C. Add the berries and sugar to the tomatoes and stir them all together. Dot the crumble haphazardly over the top. Bake until the fruit is bubbling and the crumble is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Allow the crumble to cool a little before serving, with a dollop of something creamy.

Bush tomato shortbread

May 2-3, 2025

   

Some of our best Melbourne friendships were forged through veg*n blogging and potlucking more than 15 years ago. We remain in contact but life changes - any combination of moving to more distant neighbourhoods, raising kids, health issues, and busier careers mean that few of us have maintained the same time, energy and enthusiasm for elaborate cooking. 

Yet there's been a happy little resurgence this year - over a birthday banquet out, the idea was hatched to hold a tomato-themed vegan potluck. Ever the sweet tooth, I resolved to make dessert and make it good. Here's my first of two contributions: bush tomato shortbread.

I loved using the Mabu Mabu bush tomato spice mix in damper, but at some point they stopped stocking it. I looked around online on and off for months, perhaps years, and it seemed pretty scarce. With this renewed motive, I found unadulterated dried bush tomato through Native Oz Bushfoods and mail-ordered a couple of pouches.

From there I kept it simple, using a vegan shortbread base (sourced from vegan blogging mate Steph!) that I'd usually flavour with lemon myrtle and macadamias. It's easy to make in one bowl and can be mixed by hand. I thought about adding a little cinnamon to assert this as a sweet spice mix but I'm glad that I didn't. The bush tomato shone through, tangy and fruity, dessert without a doubt. Thank goodness I'm stocked with enough spice to make more.

Bush tomato shortbread

(adapted from this recipe, which is based on this one from Vegan About Town)

200g margarine

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 tablespoons bush tomato powder

Preheat an oven to 190°C. Line a baking tray with paper.

In a medium bowl, use a fork to beat together the margarine and sugar. Add the flour and mix until combined. Add the bush tomato and mix again. Roll scant tablespoons of the dough into balls and place them on the baking tray. Bake for ~15 minutes, and allow to cool before serving.

Mushroom pâté & sesame toast

April 20-22, 2025

   

I've been a long-time reader of Anne Helen Petersen across multiple platforms and a few months ago she announced the start of a cooking club within her substack. The first cookbook we were all invited to cook from was Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart, an easy and welcome request in this household! I used this as motivation to try a couple of 'project' recipes over the Easter weekend.

The two recipes I signed up for form a clever pair within the Mushroom section. First, there's mushroom, leek & walnut pâté - I liked that it included dried porcinis for a flavour boost. There's soaking and sautéing and blending and refrigeration; nothing too complicated but best taken slowly. The process generates a lovely, savoury spread that I ate on fresh bread. I'd increase the quantity of five-spice and salt if I made this again.

Second, there's sesame mushroom toast - a home-made, vegan alternative to prawn toast. This transfers the mushroom pâté to the plainest white square bread, where it's layered with sesame seeds and shallow-fried. We love eating veg*n versions at restaurants, and I expected the home version to be messy and not quite right. How wrong I was! This sesame mushroom toast was easy to fry golden (and also successful with less oil than instructed) and tasted magnificent, especially with the sweet and sour sauce drizzle. I immediately posted photos to my veg*n groupchat with the caption I just made the mushroom sesame toast from Tenderheart and am now levitating. Then I wrote way too many effusive words in AHP's cookbook club thread. Now you get some, too!

   

Mushroom, leek & walnut pâté

(a recipe from Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart)

olive oil

1 leek, finely sliced

30g dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes

3 cloves garlic, minced

500g mushrooms (any type), roughly chopped

1 teaspoon five-spice powder

1/2 teaspoon red chilli flakes

salt and pepper

100g walnuts, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes

Set a frypan over medium heat and add a couple tablespoons of oil. Add the leek and cooked until softened, up to 10 minutes.

While the leek is cooking, drain the porcini mushrooms and lightly squeeze them out, keeping all the soaking liquid. Roughly chop the mushrooms. Strain the soaking liquid through a fine sieve.

To the frypan, add the fresh and soaked mushrooms and the garlic. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add the five-spice, chilli flakes, and salt and pepper. Allow the mixture to cool to a temperature that's safe for a food processor.

Drain the walnuts and place them in a food processor. Add the cooled mushroom mixture. Pulse the mixture to your desired consistency. Stop and scrape down the sides occasionally for evenness, and add a little of the mushroom soaking liquid if you need more moisture (I didn't need much at all). Spread the pâté on fresh bread or toast, either straight away or after storing in the refrigerator.

Sesame mushroom toast

(slightly adapted from a recipe from Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart)

toast

6 thick slices square white bread

3/4 - 1 cup mushroom pâté (as above)

1/2 cup white sesame seeds

vegetable oil, for frying

sweet & sour sauce

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

3 teaspoons tamari

2 tablespoons tomato ketchup

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Make the sweet and sour sauce by whisking all the ingredients together in a small bowl.

Spread a generous amount of pâté on each piece of bread. Sprinkle over a lot of sesame seeds, aiming for full coverage, and lightly press them into the pâté. Quarter the slices into triangles.

Set a frypan over medium-high heat and pour in oil to a depth of 5mm. Set up a plate or tray with paper towel to drain the fried toasts. When the oil is very hot arrange some toast triangles in the oil, leaving decent gaps between them. The toasts should sizzle immediately. Fry them for about 2 minutes on each side, until golden and crisp, then transfer them to the paper towel as you fry the remaining toasts in batches.

Serve as soon as possible, with sweet & sour sauce drizzled over the top.

Vegan chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream

April 5, 2025

   

After a couple of underwhelming bakes with my decades-old metal cupcake tray, I put "silicon cupcake tray" on my op-shopping wishlist. I easily tracked one down for a couple of dollars within weeks and then, of course, I had to test it out. I browsed my old recipe bookmarks and picked out a Burned Butter post for chocolate-peanut butter cupcakes.

The tray had only six cups, so I halved the recipe... and still ended up with 10 cupcakes. (If I'd read the source recipe properly, I'd have known that the original was supposed to make 24. I've written out my 10-cupcake version below.) The cake itself is a lovely, simple pantry-friendly vegan chocolate. The only potential pitfall is getting the batter mixed properly - I sifted the dry ingredients directly into the wet ones and ended up with a few powdery lumps in the cakes. I pulled the cakes out at the 20 minute mark to keep them moist, but found that their bottoms dragged on every surface they touched, leaving cakey smears on the baking tray, the cooling rack and the lunchbox I stored them in. The latter four had more time to rest in the tray and fared better.

My veganised buttercream went off without a hitch, and I slathered on a modest amount with a knife - I have a minimal-frills attitude to cupcakes, and these were bang on my preference. The silicon pan showed much promise, and I scavenged a second six-cupper from another op-shop a month or so later.

Vegan chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream

(recipe adapted from Burned Butter,

where it's credited to Joy the Baker and Ina Garten) 

chocolate cake

1 1/8 cups plain flour

1 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup neutral vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1 cup water

peanut butter buttercream

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

1/3 cup margarine

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup icing sugar

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Prepare a cupcake tray as you wish, with papers and/or oil.

In a medium bowl, sift together and flour, sugar, cocoa, bicarb soda and salt, then stir to combine.

In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vanilla, vinegar and water. Gradually pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, stirring thoroughly to combine; the batter will be quite liquid. Gently pour the batter into the cupcake tray until two-thirds full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cakes pass the skewer test. Allow them to cool before icing.

Beat together the peanut butter, margarine and vanilla. Sift over the icing sugar and beat until well combined and fluffy. Spread the buttercream over the cooled cupcakes.

Blistered beans with gnocchi Trapanese

March 22, 2025

   

We're increasingly obsessed with Meera Sodha's recipes and have been digging around for ideas whenever the urge to cook something new takes us. She's very good at putting together really tasty dishes that don't require as much fussing as an Ottolenghi (for example). This is increasingly our cooking sweet spot - we don't put aside whole afternoons for dinner prep very often these days, so something that can be whipped together in less than an hour is always looked on favourably. 

We picked this one out for a lazy Saturday night in March and it delivered exactly what we needed. The little pesto you make is super simple but a cut above using a store-bought sauce. We added a can of white beans to the blistered green beans to bulk things out a bit, but it makes a pretty scant four serves, so consider doubling this if you really want to get into some leftovers.

Blistered beans with gnocchi Trapanese

(based on this recipe from Meera Sodha's Guardian column)

50g flaked almonds, lightly toasted

100g olive oil

30g basil (fresh leaves is best, we got stuck with those weird Gourmet Garden packet herbs which worked okay in the end)

30g sun-dried tomato in oil, drained

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 garlic clove, peeled

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon salt

350g green beans, trimmed

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

500g gnocchi

Put the oil, basil, sun-dried tomatoes, nutritional years, garlic, lemon juice and salt in a food processor and blend to a paste. Tip the almonds in and just pulse it all a couple of times - you want some decent sized almond bits for texture. 

Pop a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and fry the green beans over med-high heat, turning occasionally, until they start to blister up. Add 3 tablespoons of water and pop a lid on the pan, cooking for another few minutes until they're nice and tender.

Cook the gnocchi as per the packet instructions, combine with the pesto, green beans and drained white beans and serve immediately.

Tahini & soya mince noodles with pickled radishes

March 8, 2025

   

Meera Sodha's vegan recipe column at The Guardian is becoming a staple of our research when we feel like cooking something new. Cindy bookemarked this really simple looking noodle dish and we made it a priority to give a try at home. It's really so straightforward - a perfect weeknight option, especially if you've got veggie mince and chilli bean sauce in your pantry. The tahini really makes this rich and savoury and you need a good portion of the tangy radishes to cut through (some chilli oil helps too). This is already in our regular rotation - you should add it to yours.

Tahini & soya mince noodles with pickled radishes

(based on this recipe from Meera Sodha's Guardian column)

1 bunch of radishes (~150g), trimmed and finely sliced

150ml rice vinegar

1 teaspoon caster sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 2/3 cup tahini

4 tablespoons chilli bean paste (e.g. this one)

1 tablepoon golden syrup

4 teaspoons sesame oil

4 tablespoons peanut oil (the original recipe has rapeseed oil here)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced ginger

120g dried soy mince (usually sold as textured vegetable protein/tvp)

180g dried ramen noodles

toasted sesame seeds

Combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan and heat it up until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Pour the hot pickling liquid over the sliced radishes and leave in a bowl to cool.

In a different bowl stir together the chilli bean paste, tahini, syrup, sesame oil and a shake of salt and set aside.

Add the peanut oil to a frying pan and gently fry the garlic and ginger for a couple of minutes. Throw in the dried soy mince and stir for another few minutes, then add 350ml of water. Stir everything together for a few minutes until the water has been absorbed, then stir in the chilli bean/tahini sauce you made earlier and kill the heat.

Cook the noodles as per the packet instructions, drain and rinse and then toss through a glug of oil and stir them into your mince mix. 

Serve, topped with sesame seeds and pickled radishes.

Microwaved miso noodles

January 4, 2025

   

We had an 18-year break between microwaves, and just acquired a new one at the end of 2024. Johanna's post about microwaving udon noodles with miso and edamame arrived at the perfect moment, bringing together ingredients that we love to eat, all stored conveniently in the freezer and pantry and then heated in a matter of minutes. 

We ate our noodles with leftover sesame carrots and sliced satay tofu from the supermarket. Our primary adjustment was to use a little less miso as we found our first batch a bit too salty. There's plenty of flexibility in this recipe to throw in other frozen or leftover veges and sprinkle over seasonings - I'm sure we'll eat this recipe any number of ways throughout this year.

 

Microwaved miso noodles

(slightly adapted from a recipe we found on Green Gourmet Giraffe,

where it's credited to Okonomi Kitchen)

250g udon noodles, frozen or refrigerated

1/4 cup frozen edamame

1 scant tablespoon miso

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

1 teaspoon tamari

1 teaspoon golden or other sweet syrup

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

anything you might like to sprinkle over: sesame seeds, shichimi togarashi, fried shallots, etc

Place the noodles and edamame in a microwave-safe container with a lid and a vent to let out steam, and microwave for 2.5 minutes. Stir in the miso, butter, tamari, syrup and garlic and microwave for a further 2 minutes. Stir again and serve, sprinkled with whatever you like.

Chocolate tahini caramels

December 31, 2024

   

We saw in the new year with friends close by. The hosts were vegetarian and excellent cooks so we knew we'd be well fed and, as I often do, I thought I could best contribute by bringing something sweet. The guest list included dairy-free and gluten-free eaters and my mind swiftly turned to a chocolate tahini caramel recipe I'd bookmarked just a few weeks earlier.

The active preparation time looked pretty quick and I was so relaxed about it all that I took an afternoon nap and just barely allowed enough time for these sweets to set! The tahini caramel looks soft and smooth when poured into the loaf pan but it needs freezing to solidify and once that's achieved, it doesn't necessarily slice into neat little squares. I didn't mind odd little caramel shapes and trusted that my friends wouldn't, either. It's worth keeping the caramels in the freezer right until the last moment before coating them in chocolate, because they will melt - quick work is needed and then it's back into the freezer for a final set.

This is the one drawback of this treat - it's not stable at room temperature. These bites need to be carefully stored, ideally not touching each other, in the fridge or freezer until it's time to serve them. If you can manage that, there's much enjoyment to be had: a fudgy centre with a sweet, nutty flavour; a thin, silky layer of chocolate; and a bonus burst of texture from the sesame seeds on top. 

   

Chocolate tahini caramels

(slightly adapted from a recipe on Minimalist Baker)

2 tablespoons margarine

1/3 cup sweet syrup (e.g. maple, golden; I used brown sugar syrup)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup tahini

1 cup dark chocolate chips

sesame seeds, for garnishing

Line a loaf pan with baking paper. Place the margarine, syrup, vanilla and salt in a small saucepan and set it over medium heat. Whisk the mixture as you bring it to the boil. Turn off the heat and whisk in the tahini. Pour the mixture into the loaf pan and freeze for 1-2 hours, until solid.

When the caramel is solid, line a tray that will fit into your freezer with baking paper. Melt the chocolate using your preferred method. Retrieve the caramel from the freezer and slice it into bite-sized squares (as you can see from the photos above, my bite-sized chunks weren't always square). Use a teaspoon and a fork to swiftly drop one caramel at a time into the melted chocolate, coat it on all sides, and transfer it to the tray. Repeat with all the caramel bites. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the caramels and lightly press them into the top of the chocolate. Pop the chocolates back into the freezer for 30-45 minutes.

After serving, store any uneaten caramels in the fridge or freezer.

Caramelised garlic, zucchini & butter beans

October 24, 2024

   

Cindy keeps a pretty good list of recipes bookmarked from around the internet, and remembered this one when we had a few key ingredients aging in the fridge. It's very, very simple to make and the pay off is a nice, messy dish of veggies, beans and sauce that really does cry out for accompanying fresh bread to sop things up. A very satisfying weeknight meal that was surprisingly rich - I guess miso, olive oil, wine and garlic are a pretty hearty combination of ingredients. This makes a pretty scant four meals, so we had some lunchy leftovers out of it, but it's not going to fill the freezer for the week. 

Caramelised garlic, zucchini & butter beans

(based on this recipe from Meera Sodha's Guardian column)

500g zucchinis, cut into rough bite-sized pieces

6 tablespoons olive oil

6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

150ml white wine

2 tablespoons white miso

800g butter beans, undrained

1 lemon, zested and juiced

small bunch parsley, leaves chopped

small bunch mint, leaves chopped

salt

Put a couple of tablespoons of oil into a frying pan on high heat and fry the zucchini, turning occasionally until they're golden, almost charred. Sprinkle with salt and set aside.

Put the rest of the oil in the same pan and fry the garlic for a couple of minutes until it's started to go golden. Add the wine and miso and stir the mix together so that it's smooth. Add the beans with their liquid and simmer for 10-15 minutes until you've got the texture you want - a bit liquidy, but you want it to have thickened up a bit.

Stir in the zucchini, lemon zest and juice and simmer for another minute. Kill the heat and stir through the herbs. Serve, with bread.

Charred carrots & tofu with harissa

October 5, 2024

   

The second phase of our impromptu Ottolenghi afternoon was this double tofu ensemble, combining a silken tofu and tahini-based cream with some charred up firm tofu and carrots. We made a few simplifications from the original recipe, holding back on the spring onion garnish, but otherwise stuck pretty close to Yotam's directions. This packed a pretty decent punch - our supermarket harissa had a good kick, and you really needed the creamy silken tofu underlayer to balance things out. It was great in combination with the fresher greens and rhubarb dishes and the leftovers kept me going for a few lunches. Not a show-stopper, but a very solid contributor.

Charred carrots & tofu with harissa

(slightly adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi in The Guardian)

100g silken tofu

2 tablespoons tahini

salt

50g harissa

1 teaspoon golden syrup

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons tamari

5 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

20g fresh ginger, grated

1.5 tablespoons olive oil

300g firm tofu, cut into thin rectangles

250g baby carrots, trimmed

Blend the silken tofu, tahini and salt together and set aside

Combine the harissa, syrup, vinegar, tamari, garlic, ginger and oil in a biggish saucepan and saute over medium heat for five minutes, until fragrant.

Meanwhile put a frying pan over high heat (we used our cast iron one) and fry the tofu in batches, with just a spray of oil. You want it to char up, so leave it on each side for a couple of minutes. Once it's all cooked up, pop the tofu in the saucepan with your harissa mix, along with 100ml of water and stir together gently.

In the same frying pan, char up your baby carrots until they've blackened in a few spots and softened through - the time it takes will depend on how thick they are, ours probably only took 5 or 6 minutes with a couple of turns. When they're done stir them into your saucepan as well.

 

Serve it up by layering the silken tofu cream down first and then gently arranging the saucy tofu and carrots on top.

Broccolini & asparagus with green salsa & butter beans

October 5, 2024

   

On a weekend in early October, we had the time and energy for a big cook-up. I was in the mood for fresh flavours and hit on an Ottolenghi Guardian column that I bookmarked last year about grilling (i.e. using an open flame). It was bright and all-vegetarian and we were ambitious enough to cook all three dishes!

Since we were making three multi-component dishes, it wasn't realistic to grill everything. We actually grilled (as in 'broiled') the green capsicum and garlic involved. But we oven-baked the intended-to-be-grilled broccolini and aspargus, trusting that they'd acquire a gentle crispness and char around the edges. They're served on a bed of mashed butter beans, intermingled with a spicy green salsa and topped with toasted, cumin-spiked almond flakes.

It was a savoury, hearty dish on the night we made it, still great at room temperature on the following days, and Michael even had some bonus salsa to eat with hummus on toast.

Broccolini & asparagus with green salsa & butter beans

(slightly adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi in The Guardian)

250g broccolini, cut into large bite-sized pieces

200g asparagus, cut into large bite-sized pieces

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

green salsa

1 green capsicum, sliced into four flat surfaces

6 cloves garlic, peel still on

3 large red chillies, sliced into large chunks

30g fresh coriander

10g fresh parsley

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds, lightly crushed

salt, to taste

fried almonds

1 tablespoon olive oil

30g flaked almonds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds, lightly crushed

salt, to taste

mashed butter beans

2 x 400g cans butter beans, drained

2 tablespoons lemon juice

salt, to taste

Turn a grill onto medium-high heat. Place the capsicum pieces skin-side-up on a baking tray and add the garlic cloves. Place them under the grill until the capsicum skin blisters and turns black, and the garlic cloves have softened. Turn off the heat and set them aside.

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Place the broccolini and asparagus pieces in a baking tray, drizzle over the olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss everything around. Bake for 15 minutes until tender, then set them aside.

When the capsicum is cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and place the pieces into a food processor. Peel the garlic cloves and add 3 of them to the food processor. Add the remaining salsa ingredients and blend until everything is almost smooth. Transfer the salsa to a bowl and rinse out the food processor.

Set a frypan over medium heat, add the oil for the almonds, then the almonds and a pinch of salt. Saute, stirring regularly, until the almonds are golden and fragrant. Turn off the heat and stir in the cumin.

Place the butter beans in the food processor, add the remaining 3 peeled garlic cloves, lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Blend until it's all as smooth as you can reasonably achieve.

Spread the butter bean mash over a large platter. Spoon most of the green salsa over the top and swirl it around. Pile on the broccolini and asparagus, drip over the remaining salsa, and sprinkle over the almonds. Serve.

Peanut cucumber noodles

September 11, 2024

   

   

We bought a 1kg pack of fresh noodles to make a batch of char koay teow, which only needed 500g of them. Cindy had a browse through Anna Jones' One Pot, Pan, Planet and found this recipe, which is so incredibly easy that I decided I could squeeze it in before netball on a Wednesday night. It's probably better suited to summer than whatever second winter/fake spring Melbourne is going through right now, but it's still utterly delicious. You can put it all together in about 20 minutes, so we're definitely going to come back to it in the summer time!

Peanut cucumber noodles

(slightly adapted from Anna Jones' One Pot, Pan, Planet) 

1 Lebanese cucumber

200g snow peas

500g fresh noodles

peanut sauce

5 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons tahini

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons sesame oil

4 teaspoons honey

5 teaspoons rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon chilli oil (more if you're brave - I added some post-hoc so as not to ruin Cindy's meal)

2 cloves garlic, minced

garnish

roasted peanuts

a small bunch of coriander, leaves only

chilli oil

Halve the cucumber lengthwise, scoop out the mushy seedy bit and set it aside. Cut the remaining cucumber into matchsticks and halve the snow peas longways.

Make the sauce by combining the cucumber middle with the peanut butter, tahini, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey and rice wine vinegar in a food processor and blitzing until smooth. Stir through the chilli oil and garlic plus a bit of water if it seems too thick (ours was). 

Cook the noodles as per instructions - ours simply needed a soak in some just-boiled water for a few minutes and a bit of gentle prising apart. Drain and rinse them under hot water and pop them in a big bowl.

Stir the sauce into the cooked noodles and toss, add the veggies and combine again. Serve, topped with coriander leaves, peanuts and extra chilli oil.

Mushroom & walnut samosas

August 29, 2024

   

Last Thursday I was trawling around for dinner ideas; I didn't seem to be in the mood for any of our usual favourites. I didn't recognise this Meera Sodha recipe for mushroom and walnut samosas at all when I found it among my bookmarks, but I liked the concept anew and gave it a go.

A large volume of mushrooms goes into the filling, and Sodha gives us the option of throwing them into a food processor rather than slowly, finely chopping the lot. It's a handy approach but I'd still recommend some patience with pulsing the mushrooms in small batches. I tried to process too many at once and ended up with an uneven, mostly very-finely-ground mixture. Filo pastry packets don't translate precisely across countries, so I just winged it with quantities that felt right and used up most of a box.

My approach generated about 30 golden packages of subtle savoury goodness. Though they're intended as an entree or snack to be shared around, we piled the samosas into shallow bowls for dinner and loved smearing them with lime pickle. The samosas also teamed brilliantly with a green bean salad that echoes the mustard seed and lime (we've been making it on and off for 18 years!). We relished two rounds of leftovers at home, where we were able to crisp up the pastries again in the oven.

   

Mushroom & walnut samosas

(slightly adapted from a recipe by Meera Sodha on The Guardian)

120g walnuts

600g mushrooms

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3/4 teaspoon black mustard seeds

3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon nigella seeds

1 large onion, finely diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon ginger, minced

2 green chillies, finely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground pepper

~220g filo pastry

spray oil or melted margarine

Grind the walnuts finely in a food processor and transfer them to a bowl. Pulse the mushrooms in a food processor in batches, until they're roughly pea-sized. (Don't over-fill the container, I did and ended up with very unevenly blended mushroom pieces.)

Set a large frypan over medium heat and pour in the oil. Add the mustard, cumin and nigella seeds. When they start to pop, add the onion and cook, stirring regularly, until soft and starting to brown (up to 10 minutes). Add the garlic, ginger and chilli, and cook for a further 5 minutes. Sodha says the onions should look like 'dark jewels'. Add the mushrooms and gently fold them through the onions, cooking for about 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and cook until all the liquid is evaporated, about 15 more minutes. (Be fussy about this! Too much moisture will make for soggy samosas.) Stir in the walnuts and cook for 3 minutes. At long last, turn off the heat and allow the filling to cool.

Preheat an oven to 220°C and line two baking trays with paper.

Unwrap the filo pastry and keep the unused bits lightly wrapped in a damp teatowel as you go. Slice through all the layers to form a rectangle roughly 23 cm x 10 cm - for me, that was the bottom quarter of the sheets. Take one piece and place about a tablespoon of the filling in the corner closest to you. Wrap the pastry upwards at 45 degrees to form a triangle; keep wrapping up and up to preserve the triangle shape and use up the whole rectangle. Apply a bit of oil/margarine to the outside and give the samosa a second wrapping. Place the samosa on a baking tray and repeat the wrapping process until all the filling is used up.

Apply a bit more oil/margarine to the samosas and bake for 15 minutes, until brown and crispy. Serve with chutney or pickle.

Seven spice chickpea stew

July 21, 2024

   

We've had a kale and coconut salad in our repertoire for nigh on a decade, but I've never quite hit on the right accompaniment for it. It's textured, chewy and quite filling; sweet with coconut, salty with soy, and just faintly bitter from the green leaves. It needs some protein. I've cycled through various marinated tofu recipes, but they usually include more soy sauce and the overall effect is a bit too samey and salty.

This week I browsed through my bookmarks, thinking I'd try chickpeas instead, and I pulled up this recipe from The First Mess. It's kind of like the vodka pasta sauce I made last month: cooked-down onions, and lots of tomato mellowed out with coconut milk (rather than oat cream). I adjusted some of the recipe quantities to use up full ingredient packages. The coconut is a nice echo across the two dishes and the soft, thick texture of this stew is a welcome contrast. It's a comforting meal hot from the kitchen, and just as enjoyable at room temperature packed into a lunchbox. At last, I've made a match!

Seven spice chickpea stew 

(slightly adapted from a recipe on The First Mess) 

spice blend

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

stew

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 x 400g cans chickpeas, drained

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1 x 400g can diced/crushed tomatoes

1 x 400mL can coconut milk

salt and pepper, to taste

Stir together the ingredients for the spice blend in a small dish and set them aside.

Melt the coconut oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened; this will take up to 10 minutes. Stir the spice blend into the onions for 1 minute. Stir in the tomato paste for a further minute. Stir in the garlic and chickpeas for half a minute. Add the balsamic vinegar, then the tomatoes, then the coconut milk, and season the stew with salt and pepper. Stir everything together thoroughly and allow it to simmer for at least 10 minutes. (I cooked it down a lot longer while my kale and coconut baked.)